Quote of the day: It’s easier to generate outrage by “…by scaring the shit out of stupid people”

“Some of the smartest and most sophisticated people I know – canny investors, erudite authors – sincerely and passionately believe that President Barack Obama has gone far beyond conventional American liberalism and is willfully and relentlessly driving the United States down the road to socialism,” he writes.

“No counter evidence will dissuade them from this belief: not record-high corporate profits, not almost 500,000 job losses in the public sector, not the lowest tax rates since the Truman administration.

“The billionaires [funding the party] do exist, and some do indeed attempt to influence the political process … Yet, for the most part, these Republican billionaires are not acting cynically. They watch Fox News too, and they’re gripped by the same apocalyptic fears as the Republican base.”

Bartlett believes the drive towards populism can be traced partly to the Bush strategist (and Romney fund-raiser) Karl Rove, who realised it was easier to outrage the core of your political base to make them more likely to turn out on polling day than it was to broaden it.

“How do you do that? … by scaring the shit out of stupid people.”

Does this not sound familiar?

We’re seeing the exact same politics playing out down under: Tony Abbott, and that “Great Big Tax” scare campaign, News Limited and its unceasing war on climate science and “greens” and the spectacle of the LNP Party Conference attendees voting to ban the teaching of science and cutting funding to indigenous students.

It is the politics of revenge, perpetrated by elites angry at women, homosexuals and minorities who challenge their status and privileges.

It is the world view of vested interests, the frightened and conservative, angry at the work of scientists that challenge their world views.

Their rage is palpable, and it is seeping into our media, conversations and every-day lives.